


Three Truths and a Lie

by d2fmeasurement



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-30
Updated: 2015-05-30
Packaged: 2018-04-01 22:15:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4036495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/d2fmeasurement/pseuds/d2fmeasurement
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jared gets the Pied Piper team to do a team building exercise. </p><p>Established Jared/Richard. Established Dinesh/Gilfoyle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three Truths and a Lie

“Well, that is it for official business,” Jared said. Immediately everyone started walking back to their bedrooms. “But I think we could all really benefit from some team building exercises.”

Richard frowned down at the floor, feeling secondhand embarrassment, as everyone else looked at Jared with absolute disdain.

“Let’s try it!” Jared said, with a hopeful little smile.

Richard was still staring at the floor when heard Gilfoyle say, “Richard, get your bitch to shut up.”    
Richard looked up angrily. In his mind he was jumping up to be a white knight and defend Jared, but all that came out was some sputtering. He watched Jared’s face fall with complete disappointment as the group started dispersing.

Richard burst out, “You know what? This team building exercise just became mandatory!” 

Everyone slowly turned back around.

“What?” Erlich asked.

“Yeah, thank Gilfoyle for that display which proved how much we all need to learn something about acting like a team and respecting our teammates,” Richard said, crossing his arms. Gilfoyle glared at him and Richard glared back, refusing to close his eyes or look down at the floor.

“You do remember that you once stood by this very table and told us you didn’t want us to turn into the kind of corporation that has mandatory team building meetings, right?” Dinesh asked.

“That was before he started fucking a Corporate Human Resources Department in human form,” Gilfoyle said.

“Okay, stop!” Richard said angrily. “It’s not okay to talk about Jared that way.” 

“I mean, I understand it’s gentle ribbing...”

Richard looked at Jared with pity. 

Dinesh nuzzled Gilfoyle’s shoulder and asked, “Can’t you just apologize so we can go back to your room?”

“No,” Gilfoyle said immediately.

“Okay, team building exercises for everyone then,” Richard said, sticking his chin up.

“This will be fun,” Jared told him.  
 “Suck my balls,” Gilfoyle said. When Dinesh glared at him, Gilfoyle said, “What? We’re already being punished.”

“Well, it’s not a punishment,” Jared reminded him. He took out some notecards and said, “Okay, the first team building exercise is two truths and a lie.”

“Wait, so we’re going to be playing drinking games basically?” Erlich asked. “Why didn’t you say so?”  
“Yeah, I’ll sit around and drink and play that kind of shit,” Carla agreed.

“Okay, but we’re going to be playing in a very work-appropriate way...” Jared said as Gilfoyle went to the kitchen and grabbed beers to pass around to everyone. Jared frowned as he watched. When Gilfoyle silently held one of the beers out to him, he looked at it with surprise. “Well...thank you. See, we’re already getting closer.” He opened his beer and took a cautious little sip. “I can start. Let’s see. I went to Vassar, I sung acapella in college and my favorite Harry Potter book is The Order of the Phoenix.” 

“The third one is the lie,” Richard said, smiling at how cute his boyfriend was.

“Correct. My favorite Harry Potter book is actually--”

“The Chamber of Secrets,” Gilfoyle filled in.

“Yes,” Jared said, looking at him with surprise.

“Did you write that down somewhere?” Richard asked, grabbing Jared’s arm. He couldn’t help but feel a little defensive of their relationship. Why wasn’t he the one in the house who could guess Jared’s favorite Harry Potter book?

“Of course Jared would relate to the one that’s all about some girl pouring her thoughts into her little diary,” Gilfoyle said. 

“Okay, see, we’re already becoming more in tune with each other. Gilfoyle, do you want to go next?”

Gilfoyle sighed. “I really fucking hate this activity. I also fucking hate Syrian hamsters and the band The Promise Ring.”

“The last one is the lie,” Dinesh said confidently. Gilfoyle slowly turned to him and glared. “Is that...you’re usual expression?” Dinesh asked uncertainly.

“How would you know? Since you don’t know anything about me,” Gilfoyle said.

“You fucking love hamsters! The happiest I’ve ever fucking seen you was--”

“I love dwarf hamsters,” Gilfoyle said. “Obviously. Dwarf hamsters are the only truly good thing on this earth. Syrian hamsters are the work of a vengeful god.”

“Okay, you sound mad but you couldn’t possibly be--”

“What? Angry that you know nothing about me. I’m fine,” Gifoyle said. He turned to Jared and sarcastically said, “Great team building exercise. This is going really well.” 

Carla frowned a little. She would never admit how invested she was in Dinesh and Gilfoyle’s relationship but this was bumming her out. “Uh, I can go next,” she said. “My all-time favorite TV show is Mad Men, I was a cheerleader in high school--”

Erlich laughed and said, “I can stop you there. That’s the lie.”

Carla glared and said, “Fuck you.” 

“It’s not an insult you just definitely were not a cheerleader,” Erlich said.

“I was actually,” Carla told him. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You’re not a girl-girl,” Erlich said. “You’re like a half-girl.”

“Well, there’s nothing girly about cheerleading, I was a cheerleader for two years in high school,” Jared said.

“That’s completely unhelpful,” Carla told Jared before chugging her beer. 

“I will go next to get this damn activity out of the way,” Erlich said. “I have a genius IQ. I’ve slept with three different Playmates. And Peyton Manning once shook my hand and called me a good guy.”

“Those are all lies,” Gilfoyle said.

“No,” Erlich said. “They’re all truths. It’s called strategy and it’s how a genius wins this game.”

“What do you mean wins? Telling three truths doesn’t mean you win,” Dinesh told him. 

“Yeah, there’s no strategy in this game,” Gilfoyle said.

“Well, none of you were able to guess correctly. I think that makes it pretty clear I out-strategized all of you,” Erlich said.

Gilfoyle bit Dinesh’s neck and said, “Get this out of the way so we can move on. If you’re not too busy thinking I like Syrian hamsters.”

Dinesh sighed. “Okay, I love The X-Files. Growing up I had a crush on Tori Spelling. And...” He trailed off, trying to think.

“Whatever the third thing is would be a lie,” Gilfoyle said. “You didn’t think of all of them before you went? Apologies to Erlich. There is some strategy to this game.” He turned to Richard and said, “Now that we’ve established Dinesh as the weak link in the team overall, will you please go last so we can stop this.”

“I didn’t mean to make you mad at each other,” Jared said with a frown. 

“Well, you did,” Gilfoyle said.

“I’m not mad at you unless you’re mad at me,” Dinesh told Gilfoyle. “Because you being mad at me over this would be ridiculous.” 

Gilfoyle looked away from him and focused on Jared. “Can we wrap this up? We all got the point. Jared fucked up with this idea.” 

Richard sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “If I just call this meeting and say you can go, will you be nicer to Jared? Please?” 

“Sure, whatever,” Gilfoyle said.

“Now that’s a lie,” Dinesh said. 

“Yeah. It is. Great job knowing something for once,” Gilfoyle said. 

“Okay, how about everyone is excused except for Gilfoyle,” Jared said. “Since it seems like he’s the only one causing friction in the team.”

Gilfoyle stood up and said, “Fine. Yeah, everyone else leave.”

Richard clung to Jared’s arm protectively and leaned into him, saying, “Maybe you shouldn’t do this...”

“It’s okay,” Jared said. “I do understand corporate management.” 

Erlich and Carla were happy enough for the cue to leave. Dinesh tugged on Gilfoyle’s flannel shirt and said, “Let’s go to bed.”

“Can’t. Jared won't let me,” Gilfoyle said without looking at him.

“Okay, but you know you don’t have to listen to Jared,” Dinesh said.  
 “I’m afraid I do. I really have to stay and talk privately to Jared,” Gilfoyle said, still maintaining eye contact with Jared. 

Dinesh decided to scurry away from this situation. Richard squeezed Jared’s arm.

“Richard, can you leave us alone?” Jared asked.

“Um...” Richard looked over at Gilfoyle, wondering what was going to happen.

“I’ve got the situation handled,” Jared told Richard, giving him a quick kiss. Richard reluctantly went into his room.

“I know you want me to apologize for misbehaving during your terrible team building exercise,” Gilfoyle said. “But, you should apologize. That pointless exercise did nothing except make me mad at Dinesh. Now I’m going to have to have angry sex tonight instead of the usual loving, affectionate sex. So, thanks a lot.”

“Are you actually mad at Dinesh?” Jared asked. 

“Not really,” Gilfoyle said. “He thinks I hate my favorite band but I can’t fault him for that.”

“Because you’ve never talked about it,” Jared said, nodding in understand. “Are you mad at yourself? Because you realized you’ve never talked to him about even basic things like your favorite band?”

Gilfoyle stared at him, then said, “Okay, first off, The Promise Ring is not my favorite band. I have cooler taste than that.” 

“You referred to them as your favorite band, just a second ago,” Jared said.

Gilfoyle frowned. “That was a mistake. It slipped out.”

“Understood,” Jared said agreeably. “So, are you mad at yourself for not opening up to Dinesh?”

“You’ve never told Richard your favorite Harry Potter book,” Gilfoyle reminded him.

“But, he knows I like the series. Does Dinesh know what kind of music you like? In general?”

“Are you trying to be some sort of relationship therapist right now?” Gilfoyle asked.

“Your relationship affects the company. I feel that Dinesh would be more comfortable knowing the person he’s intimate with isn’t going to lash out at him at any minute,” Jared said. “I’d be more comfortable knowing that too. As a manager at this company and as his friend.”

“Dinesh doesn’t consider you a friend,” Gilfoyle said immediately. 

“Regardless...” Jared said softly. 

“No, he doesn’t know what kind of music I like,” Gilfoyle said, shrugging to try and dismiss how much that actually bothered him.

“Why not?” Jared asked.

“Dinesh and I aren’t like that. We don’t talk about our feelings.”

“You don’t think of him as someone you can--”

Gilfoyle cut Jared off and said, “He doesn’t see me that way.”

“That’s too bad,” Jared said sympathetically.

“I don’t care,” Gilfoyle said. He couldn’t stand the way Jared was looking at him and he said, “I took Dinesh to the pet store I sometimes go to when I want to look at dwarf hamsters and he reacted like seeing me happy was just...silly and weird. Like I shouldn’t be a human with a full range of emotions because he’s not comfortable with that. It was embarrassing.”

“Maybe you should open up to him more about your interests,” Jared said.

“I thought you were supposed to be a good listener. I just said that opening up to him about my interests was the problem,” Gilfoyle said.

“I know. But, I think you should try it some more,” Jared reminded him. Gilfoyle twitched. “Well, just try and keep your behavior more work appropriate in the future,” Jared said, not sure if this was getting through or not. He walked away.

When Jared walked into his guest house, Richard was waiting for him. He looked up with concern. “Are you okay? What happened?” he asked, searching Jared for visible bruises.

“I’m fine,” Jared said, sitting down next to Richard. “Gilfoyle opened up to me,” he said with a grin.

“What? Really?” Richard asked.

“Yes!” Jared said, beaming with pride. “I feel like I’m in managerial nirvana.” He kissed Richard and then told him, “Thank you for standing up for me today. Initiating the mandatory team building exercise...that was very sweet of you.” He kissed Richard and said, “You’re my white knight.”

Richard grinned and asked, “Really? That’s all I want to be, Jared. I just want to take care of you as much as you take care of me. I sometimes feel like I’m just this big baby you have to look after and protect...”

Jared shook his head, “No. Not at all. You’re my hero.” He kissed Richard hard. “I love us,” he said. “I love that we talk to each other and share things.”

“Me too,” Richard said.

“And I love you,” Jared told him.

Richard grinned, “I love you too!” He moved into Jared’s lap and kissed him hard. 

 

Dinesh was sitting in Gilfoyle’s bed. “I wasn’t sure if you’d be in here after I was kind of a dick to you,” Gilfoyle told him.

“I’m annoyed but I still want to fuck,” Dinesh said.

Gilfoyle sat down next to him and reluctantly said, “You hurt my feelings.”

“What? When I didn’t know your favorite specific type of hamster?”

“No. Last week when we were looking at the dwarf hamsters and you said you’d never seen me like that,” Gilfoyle said. “You made a joke about me showing emotions, like it’s weird.” 

“That’s because you’re so--” Dinesh stopped himself. He could see a slight change to Gilfoyle’s expression, a sadness. “I guess I didn’t expect that to hurt you but now I can see why it’s sort of a dickish thing to say,” Dinesh said. He frowned and added, “But, I was kind of pissed that the happiest I’d ever seen you was around some little rats and not while you’re with me.”

“You make me happier than anything. I’d kill every dwarf hamster on the planet for you. Violently,” Gilfoyle said straightforwardly.

“Seriously?” Dinesh asked him.

“I’d feel bad about it, obviously, they’re fucking adorable,” Gilfoyle said. “But, yeah. I like you more. I’m in love with you. You don’t have to respond to that.” He started undressing. He noticed Dinesh staring at him. “What?”

“You just said you’re in love with me,” Dinesh said.

“I’m sorry. I should back up, I guess. The Promise Ring is my favorite band. I’d never admitted that before until I told Jared a minute ago. I don’t know why I can open up to him and not you. I guess you scare me.”

“I scare you?” Dinesh asked with disbelief.

“I’m in love with you and you don’t love me back. Being intimidated kind of goes along with that,” Gilfoyle reminded him.

“I never said I don’t love you back,” Dinesh reminded him.

“Do you?” Gilfoyle asked.

“I don’t know,” Dinesh admitted. Gilfoyle nodded a little. Dinesh pulled him closer and said, “But, you don’t have to be afraid of opening up to me. I promise I won’t ever make you feel bad for having feelings again. I do want you to open up to me because...I care about you. And I think that maybe as this goes on...I could fall in love with you.” 

Gilfoyle looked relieved and pulled him into a long, rough kiss. 

“Jared’s annoying exercise kind of did help us communicate better, huh?” Dinesh observed. 

Gilfoyle dismissively said, “I would’ve talked to you about this stuff eventually.” He started kissing Dinesh again so they wouldn’t have to acknowledge Jared’s effective managerial techniques.


End file.
